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Starvation Era
The Starvation Era is an era in which life has become extremely difficult. Starting from around October 2018, conditions have changed to a point where there is almost no food (the only food source is algae, plant material and microorganisms), the water has become much more nitric and toxic and plants are beginning to die off. This is believed to be caused by the aging of The Owner, which has changed the amount of energy it exerts on The Tank, causing the ecosystem to collapse, starting with the death of land food and the end of storms that bring in new water and wash out old. This caused the buildup of nitrate and the lack of food. At the time of the start of this era, the Platies have gone extinct, most guppies have died off and the cory catfish are struggling and starting to die off. Shrimp have continued to thrive although they have most likely hit their peak and will start to decline due to toxic water conditions and being eaten by other fish in desperation. The most likely outcome of this situation is the end of all multicellular life, unless land animals and storms return. Eventually, The Owner will age to the point where it will destroy The Tank's habitability, ending all life regardless of whether multicellular life survives the Starvation Era or not. The Owner's aging patterns are not yet conclusively determined, although it definitely is beginning to change for the worse. It is therefore unknown when The Owner will destroy the life-bearing capabilities of The Tank. The Tank's Moon is also highly affected by the aging of The Owner. There, land food has also died out and the water is beginning to dry up and escape into space. Currently, only shrimp live in it so they are surviving this event, although if storms do not return, they will certainly go extinct and life in The Tank's Moon will be over. Multicellular life could go extinct in one of two ways. The first way is a slow but sure extinction. In this scenario, toxic water conditions and lack of food lead to complete starvation and with the help of pathogens, all multicellular life either starves to death, contracts diseases that kill them or die of nitrate poisoning, with the first to die out being the guppies, then the cory catfish, then the rasboras, and finally the shrimp and any other multicellular organisms in the water. The second way is a rapid extinction event. There are a class of bacteria, the nitrogen-eating bacteria, that break down ammonia and nitrite into nitrate. This is usually washed away in storms but with the end of storms, this builds up and eventually becomes toxic as well. Plants help break down the nitrate and keep the concentration low but with plants dying off, this control becomes useless and nitrate is free to build up. This causes deterioration of the fish over time, but it also becomes harmful to the nitrogen-eating bacteria, known as the filter. Physical waste also builds up in the filter, which can block the water from coming into contact with the filter bacteria. In this scenario, either the physical waste cuts off the bacteria or the nitrate raises to a level that disables the bacteria from functioning properly. The disabling of the nitrogen-eating bacteria is colliqually known as 'killing the filter'. In this scenario, the filter is killed and the ammonia the fish produce is no longer processed into nitrate. The ammonia now rapidly builds up to toxic levels and all organisms sensitive to ammonia are wiped out overnight in a massive extinction event. After this, only some classes of bacteria and similar organisms that are not sensitive to ammonia will remain in the toxic water. Eventually, when the hot season comes around, with no new storms the water will start to boil away in much the same way as The Tank's Moon's water. At this point, conditions for even the survivors will start to become unfavourable and numbers will start to decline, although the survivors will most likely not go extinct. This will continue until The Owner completely destroys any chance of life when it ages more. Luckily, this climate change was temporary, and at the end of the Era, the climate returned to what it previously was. Hence, a new Era began: the Renaissance Era.